Welcome to the Interfaith Initiative

Our Hope for the Future

On Saturday, November 4th, 2017 The Interfaith Initiative of Santa Barbara hosted a dinner and program called “Our Hope for the Future.” Faith representatives of major faith traditions shared their core teachings that give us hope for the future. We honored the 200th Anniversary of the Birth of Baha’u’llah, the founder of the Baha’i Faith and screened a short video presentation along with brief reflections of the Baha’i community members Mollie DeWald and Rad Schreiber.

Yasmin Sallak of the Muslim community moderated an interfaith panel discussion. Panel members included: Vrajaprana (Hinduism), Art Cizneros (Chumash), Ed Bastian (Buddhism), Roy Donkins (Christianity) and Mark Childs (Judaism). The evening concluded with a live celebratory music performance by the UCSB Middle East Ensemble.

The Interfaith Initiative of Santa Barbara

Interfaith Initiative of Santa Barbara County (IFISBC) is concerned for the welfare of Santa Barbara County’s human and ecological habitats and their associated safety net challenges.

Our primary projects are:

Showers of Blessing
Providing showers for our neighbors without homes in partnership with religious institutions and social service agencies;

Educational ProgramsHosting educational programs, including annual dinners, that inspire individuals and faith communities to work together on pressing issues of social justice and the environment;

Partnerships for Compassionate Community Action
Igniting community-wide transformation by working with diverse organizations, leaders and individuals to model compassionate action for the wellbeing of all.

IFISBC addresses the interconnectedness of healthy living spaces for people – providing showers for the homeless – and our human responsibility to protect the health of our living planet.

Our core values of compassion and cooperation rally a wide array of stakeholders around creative and viable visions regarding our region’s environmental sustainability and sheltering solutions. Houses of worship and faith-based institutions form strong networks and provide perennial values and ready-made volunteers to galvanize community service projects with a level of trust that enables individuals, including those that are “spiritually independent,” to act together to pursue common objectives.